Manoa Chocolate shop and factory: making bean-to-bar chocolate in Kailua

By Martha Cheng

Published: 2012.06.29 10:38 AM

Taste single-origin chocolates and see how they're made at Manoa Chocolate's new factory and retail shop. Currently in stock are 72 percent dark chocolate bars with cacao from Hamakua, Waiahole, Samoa, Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. Tasting them side by side highlights the differences between regions—the Hamakua is remarkably fruity, tasting almost of tart plums, while the Dominican Republic chocolate is earthier and nutty. It turns out, just like wine, chocolate also has terroir. And, also like wine, every step along the way—from fermenting to roasting to conching (grinding and heating the cacao)—will affect the final flavor. So it might mean that today's Hamakua chocolate bar may not taste like next week's. (A Hershey's bar includes artificial flavors to make each bar taste exactly the same as the next.)

If you like, Dylan Butterbaugh, the 26-year-old owner of Manoa Chocolate, will show you around the factory, demonstrating the winnower (which separates the cacao nibs from the shell) powered by a kid's bicycle, and tell the stories behind all the cacao he sources, much of it directly.

Manoa Chocolate also offers chocolate bars with ginger (dehydrated and sprinkled on top), and the Breakfast Bar with cacao nibs and coffee beans, offering crunch. A new addition is the goat milk bar, creamy and smooth with just a slight tang similar to goat cheese.

(By the way, the shop is in Kailua. Why is Manoa Chocolate in Kailua? Butterbaugh chose the name for its meaning—thick, solid and vast—and because the word is easy to pronounce, no matter what language you speak.)

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From five-star restaurants to hidden holes-in-the-wall, Biting Commentary will let you know what’s hot and what’s not. Find out the latest restaurant news—who’s opening, who’s closing, which chef is moving on, where the great special dinners are. Discover the best menu items, fabulous wines, stunning cocktails and hand-crafted beers.

Born and raised on O‘ahu, Food & Dining editor Catherine Toth Fox worked as a newspaper reporter in Hawai‘i for more than 10 years and has freelanced—in between teaching journalism, hitting the surf and eating everything in sight—for national and local print and online publications since 1997. She earned her master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1999, with a focus on magazine writing and publishing. And she received her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, graduating with distinction in 1996.